Judgment_paragraph 11 · Cunsorziu di i Salamaghji Corsi - Consortium des Charcutiers Corses and Others v European Commission (C-579/23 P)

11The background to the case was summarised in paragraphs 4 to 10 of the judgment under appeal as follows:4 The names “Jambon sec de Corse”/“Jambon sec de Corse – Prisuttu”, “Lonzo de Corse”/“Lonzo de Corse – Lonzu” and “Coppa de Corse”/“Coppa de Corse – Coppa di Corsica” were registered as protected designations of origin (PDOs) on 28 May 2014, respectively, by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 581/2014 (OJ 2014 L 160, p. 23), Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 580/2014 (OJ 2014 L 160, p. 21) and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 582/2014 (OJ 2014 L 160, p. 25) […]5 In December 2015, [Cunsorziu di i Salamaghji Corsi – Consortium des Charcutiers Corses] filed seven applications for registration as a protected geographical indication (PGI) with the French national authorities, pursuant to [Regulation No 1151/2012]. The seven applications concern the following names, used by the [appellants]: “Jambon sec de l’Île de Beauté”, “Coppa de l’Île de Beauté”, “Lonzo de l’Île de Beauté”, “Saucisson sec de l’Île de Beauté”, “Pancetta de l’Île de Beauté”, “Figatelli de l’Île de Beauté” and “Bulagna de l’Île de Beauté”.6 On 20 April 2018, the Minister for Agriculture and Food and the Minister for Economics and Finance issued seven decrees approving the seven corresponding specifications with a view to forwarding them to the European Commission for approval.7 At the same time, by applications lodged on 27 June 2018 before the Conseil d’État (Council of State, France), the union holding the specifications of the PDOs “Jambon sec de Corse – Prisuttu”, “Coppa de Corse – Coppa di Corsica” and “Lonzo de Corse – Lonzu” applied for the annulment of the decrees of 20 April 2018 concerning the approval of the specifications of the names “Jambon sec de l’Île de Beauté”, “Coppa de l’Île de Beauté” and “Lonzo de l’Île de Beauté” with a view to forwarding their applications for registration as a PGI to the Commission, on the ground, inter alia, that the term “Île de Beauté” imitated or evoked the term “Corsica” and therefore caused confusion with the names already registered as PDOs.8 On 17 August 2018, the seven applications for registration as PGIs of the names at issue were forwarded to the Commission. As regards the applications for registration as PGIs of the names “Jambon sec de l’Île de Beauté”, “Lonzo de l’Île de Beauté” and “Coppa de l’Île de Beauté”, the Commission sent two letters, on 12 February 2019 and 24 November 2020, to the national authorities seeking clarification, in particular as regards the issue of their ineligibility, if any, for registration. The national authorities replied, in essence, that they considered that the two groups of products (that is to say, the registered PDOs and the applications for protection as [PGIs]) were clearly dissimilar as regards the products and that the names appeared to them to be sufficiently distinct.9 By judgment of 19 December 2019, relating to the name “Jambon sec de l’Île de Beauté” (PGI) and two judgments of 13 February 2020, relating to the names “Coppa de l’Île de Beauté” (PGI) and “Lonzo de l’Île de Beauté” (PGI) respectively, the Conseil d’État (Council of State) rejected the three abovementioned applications (see paragraph 7 above), on the ground, inter alia, that “the use of different terms and the difference in the protection conferred by a designation of origin, on the one hand, and by a geographical indication, on the other, are such as to dispel the risk that consumers, who are reasonably well informed and reasonably observant and circumspect, have, in the presence of the contested geographical indication, directly in mind, as a reference image, the goods enjoying the protected designation of origin already registered[;] consequently, the [appellants] are not entitled to maintain that the contested decree infringes the provisions … of Article 13(1)(b) of Regulation [No 1151/2012]” (paragraph 5 of the three judgments of the Conseil d’État (Council of State)).10 By the [decision at issue], the Commission rejected the three applications for registration of the names “Jambon sec de l’Île de Beauté”, “Lonzo de l’Île de Beauté” and “Coppa de l’Île de Beauté”, on the ground that, since those names had been used in breach of Article 13 of Regulation No 1151/2012, those applications did not comply with the eligibility criteria for registration, namely Article 7(1)(a) of that regulation.’

Cunsorziu di i Salamaghji Corsi - Consortium des Charcutiers Corses and Others v European Commission (C-579/23 P)

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